Era to step up DRM debate.

Association urges record companies to soften stance on digital rights management and learn to "trust people"

The Entertainment Retailers Association is planning to directly lobby the record industry in a new campaign pressing for the abolition of digital rights management on download releases.

The retail organisation publicly set out its case last week in a letter to the Financial Times in which it urged record companies to adopt MP3 as the universal download standard, suggesting that consumers were perplexed by the proliferation of different DRM systems and end up giving up on legal downloads.

Now Era, which is positioning itself as the consumers' champion on the matter, is preparing to take the issue further by putting it on the agenda at the Era/BPI joint meeting taking place on December 5 at the BPI's offices in Westminster.

"We are getting the message that people are confused by DRM," Era director general Kim Bayley tells Music Week. "It is not in Era's hands to make that change. We will debate it at the Era/BPI meeting."

"We have to trust people," she adds. "In the CD world we trust people. CDs are DRM free. It should be the same in the digital world."

Such a view, however, may run in to opposition at the BPI. While the organisation is broadly DRM neutral, reflecting the differing views of its member record companies, chief executive Geoff Taylor says that Era is misplaced in its campaigning.